How Will AI Impact the Signage Industry in a Positive Way?

What indicators do you look for to invest in an additional salesperson?

There are three topics to address when thinking about adding a sales position: market, cost and management, advises John Yarger, president of North American Signs (South Bend, IN). What portions of the market are you missing or looking to expand into that justify the added expense? What is the potential volume and how worthwhile is it? What volume is required to have the position and add profit? To understand these you also need to understand the cost. What additional costs does adding a position entail? Besides the compensation and benefits, unless there is spare capacity in all areas, you might also have increased costs for design, estimating, accounting or marketing. There is also the time to manage the additional position. This may be a hidden cost in terms of accounting and management time that could be spent in another more profitable way, such as supporting existing sales to handle more volume.

How do you think AI will impact the signage industry in a positive way?

As we began to look into this question, typing “AI” to start a Google search brought up “AI art generator” as the top search result. According to an article on zapier.com, “In just over a year, text-to-image AI art generators have gone from closed betas to being literally everywhere. What started with DALL·E 2 has grown into a huge cultural movement.” Art and image generation are integral facets of the sign industry. Whether AI’s impact on them is or will be positive remains to be seen, but some of the earliest impacts are likely to be found there. And according to an article on forbes.com, “[AI] has become essential for businesses to streamline operations and improve overall efficiency. AI-powered tools can help companies automate time-consuming tasks, gain insights from vast data and make informed decisions.” The article entitled “5 Ways to Implement AI in Your Business Strategy” includes details on intelligent document processing, customer service chatbots, predictive analytics, sales forecasting and fraud detection. Read the full article at signsofthetimes.com/072309.

I find my first days after a long weekend or vacation aren’t particularly productive. How can I break through the inertia?

There’s likely to be a ton of stuff waiting for you to do, but set yourself a small goal for the first day, then make a list of a few more short, doable goals. Momentum will build from that task, and before long you’ll be your old Energizer bunny self. Just ask yourself: “Why is it ‘too hard’ to do this for just 15 minutes?” It isn’t, and you’ll find that you quickly enjoy the feeling of completion. Here are three other tips to prod yourself into action:

• Make a public commitment to getting something done. Public scrutiny — even if it’s just in your mind — is a powerful motivator.
• If it’s a big, cumbersome project you keep delaying, accept that it’s going to take time and praise yourself for incremental progress.
• Be quick to reward yourself. A bit of relaxation differs from laziness since it’s a reward for a completed task.